


something in the air

by spaceburgers



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 17:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8110945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceburgers/pseuds/spaceburgers
Summary: Wherein Adonis invites Kaoru over for dinner.





	

**Author's Note:**

> THE GACHA EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE GACHA EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE GACHA!!!!!!!!!!! EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU AKIRA-SENSEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> unbeta'd and very hastily written I JUST NEEDED TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THIS EVENT OK
> 
> title from sidekick by walk the moon

The first word that comes out of Kaoru’s mouth is _what?_ , which is probably not the appropriate thing to say when an underclassman from your unit invites you to dinner with his family, but Kaoru thinks he’s probably justified in his shock, because when Adonis pulled him aside after practice one day to talk Kaoru definitely hadn’t been expecting _that._

Adonis just looks back at him, confused.

“Are you opposed to the idea, Hakaze-senpai?”

“What?” Kaoru blinks, and then shakes his head emphatically. “No, no, that’s not it, it’s just—why all of a sudden?”

Adonis tilts his head to the side. “Because you helped me out the other day with the radio show, so it’s only natural I should repay you for that.”

“But then why—”

“Because you said you like the fact that my family is really loud, right?”

Kaoru opens his mouth, then shuts it again. He _did_ mention that to Adonis, but mostly just in passing. He hadn’t expected Adonis to actually remember that offhand comment, much less to _act_ on it, and besides—

“Isn’t it kind of weird for a guy to bring another guy home for dinner?”

Adonis blinks at him, puzzled.

“Why would that be weird?”

Kaoru just sighs.

“Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”

Adonis gives him another one of his patented confused looks again.

“So do you want to come over for dinner?” he asks.

Kaoru pauses. Adonis is looking ridiculously earnest all over again, and Kaoru is suddenly finding it weirdly difficult to say no. And—and it’s not like he actually _wants_ to say no either. He thinks of what Adonis’s family must be like, his boisterous older sisters and the mythical figure of Adonis’s mother. He tries to imagine what dinners must be like in that household: warm food and familiar jokes and laughter filling a cozy dining room. He thinks of meals in his own household, sterile and cold and quiet.

“Sure,” Kaoru says. “I’ll be there.”

-

And so instead of heading straight home after they’re done with practice the next day Kaoru follows Adonis home instead, trails behind him as Adonis points out bus routes and street names. Adonis lives a good half an hour away from campus, in a part of town that Kaoru has never been to, and the unfamiliarity is almost disconcerting, like Kaoru’s suddenly found himself in an altered version of reality. Which is stupid, he’s just in a different part of the city, that’s all. There’s no reason to feel as nervous as he does as he walks side by side with Adonis. There’s no reason for it to be feel weird at all, because it’s not. Adonis is telling him about something that happened in class today, something about Souma and Natsume getting into an argument over something completely stupid, and Kaoru notices all over again that Adonis isn’t actually as quiet as most people might think. It’s not a bad thing, though. It’s not that Kaoru minds. He finds he _does_ enjoy talking to Adonis, surprisingly. It’s just that—well. It’s. He’s not quite sure how to finish that sentence.

There’s just something about tonight that’s throwing him off, somehow. There’s just something about this particular night, this particular street. It’s nothing. It’s fine. Everything is fine.

He’s just going to have dinner with Adonis and his family. It’s not a big deal. Everything is fine.

Eventually they arrive at a modern-looking apartment building, and Kaoru’s not quite sure why he’s surprised when Adonis points at it and tells him his family lives on the ninth floor. Somehow whenever Kaoru tried to picture where Adonis lives he’d always thought of a nice big house with a yard and rose bushes and an herb garden out back. Which was kind of silly of him, in hindsight. This is Tokyo. The fact that Adonis lives in a quaint little apartment just like Kaoru does too shouldn’t be surprising at all.

Adonis gets visibly nervous the closer they get to his front door. He falls quiet in the elevator, and Kaoru rests a hand gently on Adonis’s shoulder.

“Hey,” he says. “What are you worried about?”

Adonis turns to look at him, then turns away again.

“My sisters have never met any of my friends before,” Adonis explains. “And I’m not sure what to expect from them.”

Kaoru laughs, and Adonis turns to look at him again.

“Hakaze-senpai?”

Kaoru grins at him. “You didn’t have to look so moody over something as trivial as that,” he says, patting Adonis on the shoulder again. “I’m sure I can handle it.”

Adonis’s eyes are far too serious when he replies solemnly, “You haven’t met my sisters.”

Kaoru’s grin widens. “You haven’t met _my_ sister,” he says, in a tone of voice that brokers no argument. Adonis dips his head in acquiescence, but even from where Kaoru’s standing he can still tell that Adonis is smiling.

Somehow he feels a whole lot better about the whole thing afterwards. He doesn’t try to examine that thought too much. All he knows is that the pressure in his chest has suddenly let up, and that Adonis is smiling next to him, and even when the ding of the elevator lets them know they’ve reached the right floor Kaoru finds he isn’t nervous at all.

-

Kaoru likes all kinds of girls on principle, but even he has to admit that maybe he should’ve taken Adonis more seriously when he told Kaoru that he’d never met anyone like Adonis’s sisters before.

The Otogari sisters are tall. And loud. And very, very pretty. And they all look a lot like Adonis, which is both kind of cute and also extremely disconcerting at the same time. His eldest sister in particular is a spitting image of him. Looking at her is like looking at an older female version of Adonis. Which is. Weird. Really, really weird. Kaoru tries his best not to think about it, and fails miserably.

Their names are Athena, Helen and Ariadne, in order, and Kaoru thinks Adonis’s parents probably had a thing for Greek mythology, although he wonders about those mythological figures in particular. He wonders if the names of the Otogari siblings would make appropriate dinnertime conversation, and then realizes that going by how many questions Adonis’s sisters are pelting at him he’d probably be lucky to get a word in edgewise at all. Kaoru is maybe starting to understand a little bit why Adonis is the way he is. He really doesn’t blame Adonis at all.

“Kaoru-kun, right?” Helen asks. Her face is really, really close. Normally Kaoru would be flattered by the attention of a pretty girl, but somehow all he feels right now is apprehension. “Adonis-chan talks about you all the time!”

“Does he?” Kaoru says. There’s a weird lurch in the pit of his stomach that he valiantly tries to ignore. Instead he aims his most charming smile at Helen and continues, “Only the good things, I hope.”

“Of course,” Athena interjects, butting her way into the conversation in a way that speaks of an easy camaraderie among siblings that makes Kaoru ache. Kaoru turns to smile at her too, and she grins back at him, willingly charmed. “You’ve been taking good care of our Adonis, haven’t you?”

“Anything for my beloved kouhais,” Kaoru says, turning to Adonis, who is—looking really, really, _really_ embarrassed right now, in a way that’s almost… cute? No. Not cute. Cute is definitely the wrong word here. Kaoru turns back to the smiling faces of Adonis’s sisters. This he can deal with. This, he knows he’s good at.

So he entertains their questions, talks about school and regales them with tall tales about UNDEAD, makes them laugh with stories of the antics that Yumenosaki students get up to, and by the end of it he has the Otogari sisters in stitches, and even Adonis is smiling too.

He’s in the middle of talking about the marine life club, talking about Souma with occasional interjections from Adonis trying valiantly to defend his friend, when suddenly—

“Oh, you must be Kaoru-kun!”

Kaoru turns around, and Adonis’s mother is standing in the doorway. She’s smiling gently at him, dressed simply in a plain, no-nonsense dress, and all of sudden Kaoru finds himself at a loss for words.

She doesn’t look like Adonis at all, except—no, Kaoru looks closer and realizes they have the same eyes, the same molten gold color, the same shine that immediately draws you in. But that’s not what makes Kaoru temporarily forget how to speak. No, it’s the almost otherworldly quality to her that makes Kaoru stop short, something about her presence that immediately makes every single person in the room take notice. She’s not particularly tall, but her features are immediately striking, and Kaoru thinks he’s finally starting to understand the stories that Adonis told him about her.

She’s nothing like Adonis. She’s so much like Adonis.

 _He really_ is _her son, isn’t he_ , Kaoru thinks.

“Oh,” Kaoru says, when he realizes he’s been silent for far too long. “Yes, that’s me. I didn’t know Adonis-kun had a fourth older sister,” he throws in, just for good measure, and Adonis’s mother laughs, genuine and bright and beautiful.

“You flatter me,” she says, looking patiently amused. “I was just about to announce that dinner’s ready. Are you hungry?”

Kaoru opens his mouth to reply, but Adonis’s sisters have already gotten to their feet, jostling with each other as they make their way out of the room to the dining room. Kaoru watches the way they interact with each other, the way they interact with their mother, easy and casual but still unmistakably brimming with affection, and this time the ache in Kaoru’s chest is a lot harder to ignore.

“Hakaze-senpai?”

Kaoru starts, because Adonis is a lot closer than Kaoru had expected. He turns, and Adonis is standing there, hovering just behind him, looking like he’s not quite sure what to say. The worry on his face is unmistakable. Kaoru’s expression softens.

“I’m fine, Adonis-kun,” he says. He smiles. “Don’t worry about it.”

Adonis still looks like he wants to say something else—but instead he just lifts his hand, places it on Kaoru’s shoulder, a direct parallel to their exchange in the elevator. His touch is surprisingly gentle. Kaoru isn’t sure why the ache in chest only intensifies afterwards.

“Let’s not keep your sisters waiting,” Kaoru says, still smiling.

Adonis fixes him with one final worried gaze; but then he nods, lifts his hand from Kaoru’s shoulder, and then he’s showing Kaoru out of the room.

Kaoru takes a deep, deep breath.

-

Dinner is delicious. And very, very loud. Adonis and his sisters fight over dishes and elbow room and who gets to wash the dishes afterwards. Kaoru volunteers to help, and is quickly shot down by all three of the Otogari sisters at the same time. (“We can’t expect a guest to wash the dishes for us!” Ariadne gasps, and Kaoru isn’t even sure if her outrage is exaggerated or not. He thinks it’s best not to ask.) All the while Adonis’s mother watches over them like some of kind of a saint, smiling at them and occasionally interjecting when the argument over who gets the last piece of meat gets a little _too_ loud.

It’s nothing like dinner in the Hakaze household.

Dinner in the Hakaze household is quiet. Dinner in the Hakaze household is respectful. Dinner in the Hakaze household is usually dinner on his own, because his siblings and his father often get home late from work, and Kaoru finds himself sitting alone at a dining table that used to fit a family of five. Dinner in the Hakaze household is usually leftover rice from the day before and whatever Kaoru decides to microwave for the day. Dinner in the Hakaze household is nothing like this: warm food and warmer smiles, loud voices and a sense of genuine happiness.

Mostly, though, mostly Kaoru watches Adonis, watches the way his sisters fawn over him, watches the way he holds his own against them. Everything Kaoru knows about Adonis starts to fall in place with this new information, little quirks and habits suddenly starting to add up. This is who Adonis is, Kaoru thinks, from his obsession with strength to his thing about protecting the weak, his taciturn nature and how, underneath that, he’s also surprisingly kind and gentle.

Adonis notices Kaoru watching him; he looks up and smiles.

Kaoru smiles back.

-

Later, when they’re all full and well-fed and getting sleepy from the food, Kaoru decides that he should probably go. It’s late, he says. He’s got a bunch of stuff to do, he says. (He doesn’t say that if he gets home after his dad does he’s going to be in a whole lot of trouble.) Adonis’s sisters pester him, tell him not to leave, but eventually they relent, ruffle Kaoru’s hair and tell him to come back again soon.

“Well,” Kaoru says, getting his things. He smiles at the family that’s gathered in front of him, hikes his bag over his shoulder. “I should go then.”

“Adonis-kun, aren’t you going to go walk your boyfriend home?” Athena pipes up.

Kaoru chokes.

“Wait, hold on, we’re not—” He turns to Adonis for support, and discovers that Adonis’s face has turned an extremely startling shade of red. He also looks like he’s completely incapable of speech. Kaoru finds himself blushing even harder. His face feels like it’s on fire. He needs to get out of here _right now_.

Athena just laughs, gets up to shove Kaoru and Adonis towards the door. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Adonis-chan, make sure you get your friend home safely okay?”

Adonis doesn’t reply. Or, more likely, _can’t_ formulate a reply.

“It was nice meeting you,” Kaoru manages to get out. “Thank you for the dinner.”

The three sisters wave merrily at him. Before they can say anything else, Adonis suddenly grabs him by the arm and resolutely drags him out their front door towards the direction of the elevator.

Kaoru finds himself speechless all over again.

He can feel, acutely, the points of contact where Adonis has his hand around Kaoru’s arm. His skin is so, so warm.

Almost as abruptly, Adonis lets go of his arm again. Adonis’s face is still red.

“Sorry about my sisters,” he mutters.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Kaoru waves it off with a smile, which probably comes across as a lot less cheerful than it usually is given how hot his face feels right now. “You don’t actually have to walk me home. I know they were just teasing.”

Adonis hesitates.

“I mean,” he says, “I could if you want me to.”

Kaoru blinks.

Adonis still isn’t looking at him, his eyes fixed firmly on some indiscernible point to Kaoru’s left; but then he shifts, fixes Kaoru with his gaze, and anything Kaoru was about to say immediately dries up in his throat.

“I,” he begins, and is interrupted by the ding of the elevator. He turns to see the elevator doors opening next to him, the harsh fluorescent light spilling out over the both of them.

He turns back to Adonis again.

“It’s fine,” he says. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you at school.”

Adonis nods. Hesitates. That same look crosses his face again, the one where he looks like he has something to say, but doesn’t know if he should actually say it out loud.

Instead he places his hand on Kaoru’s shoulder again.

“See you, Hakaze-senpai,” he says. “Thank you for coming over.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Kaoru returns, and then steps into the elevator. He waves at Adonis as it closes, and when it finally does, he finds himself staring blankly at the doors instead.

 _What the hell is wrong with me?_ he thinks, and then puts his head in hands.

He doesn’t know what he’s going to say to Adonis in school tomorrow. Somehow, it feels like everything’s suddenly changed.


End file.
